French Harding : Civil War Memoirs Book

An interesting book--a look into the mind of Chuck Compton, a bona fide member of the Greatest Generation. The guy was a war hero and accomplished prosecuting attorney. But he grew into a paranoid right wing crazy old man.

I'm watching Band of Brothers with my kids so I thought I'd read this biography I'd been wanting to get to for some time. Lynn "Buck" Compton was the Lt. who jumped behind enemy lines on D-day (and earned a Silver Star) and as part of Market Garden in he Low Countries, then had PTSD after Bastogne and was taken off the line. He disputes the portrayal in the HBO series, saying it is good to show how PTSD or mental breakdowns can occur, but claiming he didn't suffer one. Then he turns around and admits that he was firmly told to go get some rest and did so, eventually picking up orders from an old friend to stay in liberated Paris to organize sporting events for the troops. It seems he was a very good and brave soldier who did crack to a degree sufficient that his commanders sent him back. His men liked him well enough they didn't hold it against him.

But the book was just as much, if not more, about his right wing political beliefs.

As a child he worked as an extra on film shoots (growing up in LA). He worked with Charlie Chaplin. He tells his readers to not forget that Chaplin was English and not a US citizen, who married his wife Oona when he was 54 and she was just 18, and Oona's father Eugene O'Neil was a "left-winger" who was friends with John Reid the communist. Chaplin fired him from a movie set because Buck wasn't enthusiastic enough in a scene, so Buck lets him have it with both barrels. Chaplin is no one to honor in Buck's eyes.

Buck's dad was a drunk who ended up committing suicide. Buck was hard on his father during his life and in his book. Clearly no respect there.

Buck was hazed pretty bad joining a frat at UCLA--lots of paddling and making pledges drink disgusting stuff and leaving him out in the desert. Buck defends hazing as a good thing--"just part of the experience". He omits how he would be the hazer in subsequent years, only telling about his being the hazee and defending it. Clearly he is hiding his own activities in this regard--somewhat cowardly IMHO to leave this out completely. He really comes across as the jock arse bully. Not a guy I think I would have liked to be friends with.

He was no fan of the left-wing students who refused to join any of the frats. "They were always hanging around, handing our leaflets, protesting something or other. . . their allegiance was never to the Untied States." Buck really believes that if you protest your government you are a traitor to your country. There is no room for a loyal opposition in his worldview.

During his years in the LA police force he was a big fan of a columnist named Westbrook Pegler who regularly "warned of a dictatorship being created in America." Pegler ended up getting fired by the Hurst syndicate and ended up writing for the John Birch Society. Although Buck admits to being a Mason and a member of the Knight's Templar (a modern fraternal quasi-military organization) he never admits to being a member of the John Birch Society, although he mentioned them favorably. I'll bet he was a member, but omits this detail.

"Collectivism" is the great evil that Buck Compton sees in the world. "Sometimes it is called communism, sometimes socialism, sometimes terrorism--but these are all terms for the same thing. Collectivism: the idea that government can control the production and distribution systems of a country better than individuals can." He really hates the idea of society organizing itself to tackle problems. Any attempt to do so is evil in his world view. "Collectivism, aka socialism, is the enemy of all freedom-loving people. Freedom and socialism cannot coexist." He clearly never spent much time examining post WWII Western Europe's social welfare state. Like most people of his generation he could not separate the idea of the modern social welfare state from the idea of Stalin and Mao. A real solid tea party guy before there was a tea party.

He closes with a long political diatribe. He claims that the left wing in America are "coalescing with the enemy"--whatever that means and whomever the enemy is. He strongly defends Bush's wars saying that every war is a war of choice--we could have stayed subject to the British crown and could have stayed home from Europe during WWII. He favors mandatory military service for all men for at least a year after high school.

The only other thing I haven't mentioned is the prosecution and trial of Sirhan Sirhan and other big cases while he was in the LA DA's office. He must have been a good trial attorney because he rose through the ranks. He tells of corruption in the office which he did nothing to confront or challenge, choosing instead to keep his head down and accept a transfer to the backwater Long Beach office. He tells of how he really loved the death penalty and sought it every chance he could. He long laments the commutations Gov. Brown handed down for some of his convictions changing death to life. He wanted to see those guys dead.

He later served as a California appellate court judge for 20 years. I'm glad he is no longer on the bench. I don't think he would have been a very merciful judge.

I admire Buck's military service, along with all the WWII vet soldiers. But if their world view was much like Buck Compton (and I suspect most of them held similar views) I'm glad they are not today still controlling the nation. This book is an insightful look into the mind of 75 years ago.